This week we’ve got the pleasure of presenting you with a guest blog from the inestimable Mr Marcus Harben, director extraordinaire and regular Haphazard collaborator. 
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So I am not one for hyperbole or big grand statements so let me just start by saying that Haphazard are the future of all media. FACTBOMB EXPLODES!
So the obvious question is why are Haphazard the future of all media? Answers below:
Zombie Musical. A BAFTA winning short that dared to be uplifting and funny when short films are meant to be about children with sad faces staring at council flats with acoustic guitar music playing on the soundtrack.
They share a philosophy that part of being good at your job is by being good to people and that’s the best way to get the best and hardest work out of them.
They are true geeks who want to compete and stand alongside their heroes and not just pay homage to them.
They asked me to direct a taster for a kung fu comedy for them. Clearly they are geniuses or profoundly stupid. I wasn’t going to check as I really wanted to direct this and didn’t want them to change their minds.
To this day I have no idea why they asked me. I had done some kung fu comedy with a Jackie Chan spoof for a kids comedy show called Hedz. I own maybe 50 or so kung fu movies with a major emphasis on early ’80s Jackie Chan. I owned my own North Face jacket. Who knows? But I am very happy they did.
So here were the challenges: We were going to shoot on a camera that is usually used for still photography or for “filmy” bits on BBC 4 docs about the history of chairs. A talking head interview is very different to a big action sequence. We pulled it off without me having a proper monitor as we couldn’t afford the tech. So playback had to be factored into the schedule. Big props to Alan McLaughlin the DOP and his team who is also my long lost son as he is only about nine years old. We are halfway through the edit and we might just have pulled it off.
The kind of Kung Fu you see in movies is performed by people who have been working together for years and often rehearsing for weeks. Naysun, the producer and leading man, said they did all theirs in five hours. There is a mixture of so many styles from slapsticky to acrobatic to Wrestlemania. My jaw dropped at just how good these people were. I truly believe that Glasgow could become a centre for action cinema with the kind of people who are out there. Stunning. We are halfway through the edit and we might just have pulled it off.
Comedy. That’s a tricky one. Especially as our audience were young and we couldn’t rely on the easy fallback of swearing or ’90s paedo gags that most British TV relies on to get laughs. Plus our target audience just don’t watch TV and films that much these days. Not when games and cartoons provide all the comedy and adventure they want. Luckily Scuba, the writer and tallest man in the world, had something which referenced gaming, manga and mythical archetypes in a way that didn’t exclude old farts like me. And when Scuba acted out his lines he essentially became a living cartoon. Then came guest stars like Sanjeev Kohli, Innes Smith and Vivien Taylor who don’t do Kung Fu but do know how to get laughs in a way that is big, fearless, silly and yet subtle – perfect for this taster. And I could observe the non-comedy actors watching and learning from them which was a joy to see. We are halfway through the edit and we might just have pulled it off.
Then the heavy stuff: The themes we wanted to explore were big. All of us are truly worried about young people and their future. We wanted to make something that encouraged yoofs to respectfully question authority, exercise more, read more books and not to give in to greed and anger. And if this makes me pretentious and worthy then fine, I now know about 10 guys who can fly through the air and kick you in the face. As they are flying they will shout: “We are halfway through the edit and we might just have pulled it off.”
Soon you will see the stuff of Legend. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I am making it.
Marcus
